Gross Dose

Parenting has plenty of opportunities for contact with bodily fluids. This is something I came to terms with long ago. However, yesterday morning had to beat all. Keep in mind I've cleaned up pee messes, I've cleaned up poop messes, and I've cleaned up puke messes when Dear Daughter went through a phase of repeated flu bugs when she was barely a year old. As other parents of young ones know, toddler puke does not go neatly in the toilet to be flushed away. It goes on the carpets, the beds, the blankets, the clothes (the child's as well as your own), and pretty much anything in the way when the event occurs. Fortunately, in the past 2 years and some odd months, there have been no further significant puke events. Daughter has a sensitive tummy and some seasonal allergies, and there has been a time or two that she has had a "mini puke" apparently resulting from mucus drainage in her stomach. This event is nothing like a stomach flu bug and does not result in a thorough stomach dump. It tends to occur as an isolated event on an empty stomach, and thus is not of massive quantity. It is, nonetheless, gross to see and to clean up.

**Side Note: I warned you with the title, so if you are still reading, it's your own fault**

Yesterday morning was one of those mini-puke events. Apparently it happened in two consecutive "mini dumps." I missed the first one as I was busy changing laundry loads preparing Daughter's breakfast, and completing a phone call when Daughter, who was sitting at the table about to eat breakfast, jumped out of her chair and began crying. Then came the mini dump, which was well contained. A few minutes after I cleaned it up, I discovered a small amount of mini dump evidence in a completely different location from the event I had previously witnessed. When I questioned Daughter if she threw up in that spot, she replied, "No (pause)..., I think Bub was just pushing his walker through it." As this began to sink in, I was aware of Dear Son driving his walker toy all over the house in a frenzy, which he had been doing for quite some time following the mini dump incident. I immediately hijacked the walking toy and upon examination, discovered mini dump evidence down the front of it and pooled in a small compartment toward the bottom of the front of the toy where it was then slowly dripping out onto the floor. My mind raced with the implications of this discovery. When I questioned Daughter further, she informed me that she had thrown up on her brother's walker toy, but apparently neglected to tell me about this. He was apparently unfazed by the event and proceeded to carry on as usual. I spent the next hour or two searching for and cleaning up puke trails.

*Sigh* Just a day in the life....